UK consumer confidence has tumbled for a second consecutive quarter, and is now at its lowest for 18 months, as Brexit worries dominate, a key survey reveals today.
Accountancy firm Deloitte’s headline consumer confidence reading dropped further into negative territory in the survey covering the fourth quarter of last year, as optimism about job security and disposable income fell sharply. Deloitte meanwhile warned that UK households had entered 2019 in a “cautious mood” as it published its latest tracker, based on the responses of more than 3,000 UK consumers between January 4 and 7.
Read More: Ian McConnell: Those Tory brass necks meant we should have seen this Brexit twist coming
Ian Stewart, chief economist at Deloitte, said: “Recent data, in the form of record employment, higher earnings and falling inflation are great news for UK consumers. But consumers are more focused on Brexit worries at home and the clouds gathering over the global economy. Work may be easier to find than for decades and pay may be rising, but today’s decline in confidence shows that consumers’ spirits are heavily influenced by expectations.”
Read More:
Ian McConnell: Paris metro poster for slapstick British farce evokes Brexit metaphor
Ben Perkins, head of consumer research at Deloitte, observed that, while quarterly spending on essentials and discretionary items had risen, the fall in overall confidence had resulted in more muted expenditure growth than expected during the “golden” quarter in the run-up to Christmas.”
He added: “Based on the tracker’s findings this quarter, it seems that consumers are anticipating bad times ahead, despite the backdrop of positive macroeconomic data. Notably, spending fell across certain essential categories, such as housing or transport, and on big-ticket items such as electrical goods and furniture.
Read More: Ian McConnell: Man in Lego boat without paddle sums up Brexit fiasco frustration
“Consumers have entered 2019 in a cautious mood. We expect spending to continue to slow, especially in the big-ticket discretionary categories.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here